Chapter 15
The battle of Green Lake Town part 2
"It was all your fault, and you know it!" Louis shouted angrily at general SilverInk, leader of the eastern forces of Equestria and in charge of stopping the changeling advance inside the land.
Louis was red in fury, his fist striking the planning table with each word. The two generals, Ace and Silver, were listening to him, Ace having an uncomfortable expression and Silver an annoyed one.
The tent they were in was smaller than their usual tents since it was located near the front lines, in the last fortified position right next to the balista. Inside, only the planning table and an equestrian banner adorned it, covering the rest of the free space. A large map of the battlefield was spread wide onto the table, position markers telling where the troops were and where the battle had been fought.
"One thousand soldiers, I can't believe it!" Louis turned around, walking a few feet away from the table. His hair was all messed up due to the last engagement with the changelings and his uniform was dirty from both dirt and changeling blood (though he had tried to clean the last as much as he could). He no longer had his hat since it had fallen during the battle.
"Louis, you need to calm down..." Ace began.
"Calm down? CALM DOWN!!" he interrupted, turning back at them. "How can I calm down when the battle vas von by mere luck! If you vould have heard me from the beginning general Silver, this would have never happened and those troops would still be a life!"
"Now Louis, you can't be certain of that," Ace said. The German opened his mouth to speak again, but Ace continued. "It is true that the enemy thought differently than we thought they would and that the lack of a central command in the center was a heavy mistake that almost costed the battle. But that does not give you the right to hypothesize against the officer in command and even less to shout at him in such a disrespectful manner." Louis was listening. Though he still seemed angry, what Ace was saying had him shut up.
"As for the troops lost, we can't do anything more but to make sure their lives weren't wasted in vain," Ace finished. Silver cleared his throat.
SilverInk walked forward until he was leaning in the table, looking at the map.
"I heard what you said Commander, but I will take into consideration the suggestions that I deem useful. Yes, I made a mistake..." That earned a snicker from Louis. "...but I will not make it again." He looked at the map as his furrowed his brow. "Now we know that the enemy commander is more clever than what we thought. We need to outsmart him on this." Ace looked at the map.
"General Ace, how many troops do we have that are still able to fight?"
Ace looked at a paper he was holding. "Three thousand five hundred and eight, sir. The rest dead or wounded." Silver nodded.
"I want you to take a force of three hundred and prepare a flank attack here..." he said pointing at the western side of the map. "We don't have enough troops to fight for long and the enemy knows it. He won't he expecting us to divide our troops even by taking a hundred." Ace looked at where Silver pointed.
"Sir, are you certain?" Ace asked. Silver nodded.
"And you, Commander, take your original brigade of one thousand and prepare to make a flank assault. If I don't give the order after three hours into the battle, you are to fall back to the second fortified position, there we' meet and stop the enemy. If I do give the order, attack their eastern flank, but more to the south. Sneak inside the trees of that forest, use it as cover for the troops." He chuckled. "Again, they won't be expecting that."
Luis frowned. "But sir, why I have a thousand and general Ace only three hundred?" Ace seemed to be as curious on that as Louis was.
Silver looked at him like if it was obvious. "Well, because while both of your forces are to make surprised attacks, yours is more vital and requires more ponies since it will define the result of the battle. Ace's force will save a small raiding assault on their flanks more to confuse than to make any actual vital move. With that confusion Ace will create, my forces will have a better advantage."
Ace nodded. "I see now sir." Louis wasn't as convinced, but he didn't said anything.
"Now, I eat our troops to he ready for when the changelings return. I don't want to e caught up so by surprise like last time." Silver say down on the only chair. Ace and Louis saluted and walked outside.
Outside, the sun was already descending and it would be just a couple of hours before dawn. Small field tents covered up the first fortified position, overlooking the forest. All around, troops were readying themselves for the next engagement with the changelings, sharpening swords or resting. Many were stringing their bows, filling their quivers or simply walking. Many seemed troubled because of the last fight, some of the soldiers eyes seemed to be staring into nothingness and an eerie silence hung over the field camp. Officers went around their duties silently and only the sounds of sharpening or the occasional sound if metal against metal sounded.
Louis as Ace walked towards the highest point in the hill, then looked down towards the forest.
Louis had ordered right after battle that large wooden lances be placed on the hill's side to make an enemy ascend more complicated. Also, if someone ran blindly up they could get impaled as well, but Davis wasn't thinking much about that, since it could end up affecting his troops as well. He just hoped that falling back was off from Silver's plans.
The large dark forest stood in front of the two, it's shadows casting a menacing threat of the changelings hiding in places within it. Below, between the forest and hillside, changeling bodies were spread all over. Louis had to make sure that all fallen Equestrian troops were taken off from the battlefield and taken care off. He still remembered the carts piled with the dead heading over to the main camp to be buried there.
One thousand... He still couldn't believed it.
"I supposed you are still thinking of or losses," Ace said. Louis nodded slowly.
"Yes, I am."
The general sighed. "Too many losses for such a small brawl. This wasn't even the decisive engagement." He looked around. "Let's hope we make it and that we manage to stop them." Louis nodded.
"Ja..." he answered. "Let's hope..."
Both turned around and walked towards their troops to prepare the defenses and be ready for the next Chengling assault. The two had the same worry in mind: would they make it?
*** *** ***
"Quick! Ready your bows!" shouted General Ace. Archers prepared to fire. "Fire!"
Instantaneously, hundreds upon hundreds of arrows whistled as they left their respective bows. The wooden projectiles could be seen in the light of the setting sun as the flew up onto the sky and then slowly began to descend upon the oncoming changeling army. It wasn't long before the first shouts of agony began to be heard alongside the thundering sound of hooves running against the dirt. Ace noticed a couple of smiles from his archers.
“Don´t celebrate yet! Ready your bows again!” he instructed hurriedly. Soon he was ordering another volley.
“Fire!”
Louis watched as Ace began his flank attack on the moving changeling army. He was waiting with his thousand ponies, hidden from sight but trying to see the battle that had begun not barely minutes ago. Already were the first changeling units reaching the top of the hill, engaging in combat with Silver´s troops. As soon as Ace had seen the changelings in position for them to attack he had ordered his troops to advance. That had really taken the changelings by surprise, and those precious seconds in which the changeling officers tried to rearrange their troops to meet the small force of charging equestrians wasn't enough before they clashed. Ace was commanding from behind, ordering the archers to shoot volley after volley, each time inflicting heavy casualties on the enemy troops.
“Sir, the troops are wondering how long before we enter combat,” a pegasus officer asked Louis. The german commander looked at the pegasus, then again at the battle from his hidden watch spot. He took out of his belt some small binoculars and watched off in the distance. Silver seemed too busy trying to keep his troops organized as more and more changelings charged to worry about giving Louis a signal.
Louis closed his eyes. He could hear the close shouts of the engaging armies. It was obvious that, for now at least, the had the advantage of the battle. He was unsure as to how it was going to end, though. Ace´s flank attack seemed to be causing much more damage than the one they had predicted at first, cutting right through the significantly larger changeling army.
“I don't know, but be sure to keep your unit ready. We can't delay if they need us.” The pony saluted and walked off. Louis turned back towards the battle. He could see Silver ordering his engaged troops back. Why?
The equestrian troops on top of the main hill quickly fell back towards Silver´s archers. Louis smiled slightly. He now knew what SilverInk was going to do.
As soon as the troops were behind the archers, a large volley flew down and hit all the charging changelings who, surely, had been thinking that the enemy was falling back for good. In a matter of minutes, the first wave of charging changeling troops was completely exterminated. Louis knew that wasn't victory, though. Soon the second wave was replacing their fallen changelings and Silver had to order a charge to stop their advance, since the archers were still reloading.
There was one thing Louis noticed about the changeling attack. They were coming in waves of five hundred each. They seemed to be going much more organized than the last battle, but it didn't seemed to be helping much since the equestrians hadn´t lost any significant number of troops, using the archers efficiently against the changelings. So far, it looked as if the changelings were simply running straight blind of what was waiting for them. Also there seemed to be a lack of leadership, since Ace had managed to break the entire flank of the changelings without problem, causing disruption inside the changeling lines and confusion on the changelings attacked. It seemed like victory was in their hands, but… something worried Louis.
It was too easy. Something Louis noticed as well was that the changelings didn't have all their troops. There were definitely no more than six thousand on the attack. That led Louis to wonder as to what the changelings were planning. He looked at the sky and noticed the airborne fight.
Pegasi against changelings. They seemed to be the ones with most of the trouble. Though apparently their numbers were definitely against the Pegasus forces, the pegasus were much better maneuvering than the bugs. The problem was the notable disadvantage of numbers. The changelings were five to one pegasus pony. Louis even considered giving up his cover to send some pegasi units to help. Still, he waited. It wouldn't be a good idea to disobey orders and, even though they really seemed pressed, the pegasi were definitely holding. Their swords and arrows and also the occasional light armor proved to be a serious help to them, since the changelings were simply attacking with hoof, horn and magic.
Louis looked down to the ground, sighing. He turned and slowly creeped out of his safe spot and to the hidden troops. They were hidden using tall grass that covered large areas of the hills as well as with some trees and large wooden shields that they have made right before battle. He turned to his second in command, a navy blue pegasus with blonde mane with orange tips named Iroh. His cutie mark was a fleur-de-lis with an eagle with its wings spread wide.
He didn't knew much of that pegasus, a captain that had been ascended of his rank after taking command of a mission on the north with the crystal empire army. Exactly what he had done, Louis had no idea. Still, he had received very good reviews of him, and he seemed the best choice for a second in command.
“Captain, status report,” he said. The pegasus nodded and saluted.
“Yes sir.” He turned to look at the hidden troops. “Everypony is ready to fight against the enemy, sir. They are hidden as requested and also prepared to go at a minutes notice.”
Louis nodded and smiled, pleased. “Thank you, Iroh.” He looked at his rifle. It was hanging on his back. He knew he didn´t wanted to leave his troops alone, but he was going to use it. He would be in the fight, but the rifle was going to give him serious advantage against the enemies. He passed his hand over his hair and turned around.
*** *** ***
Ace was sweating a lot. Even though the battle was definitely on their favor, the amount of effort he and his troops were doing was a lot. They were technically the only ones hitting the enemy and the only ones actually fighting. Silver was simply holding them down the hill with archers and Louis hadn't been called to fight yet. Ace wondered slightly why Silver hadn't ordered help.
He couldn't think much though. He parried a changeling horn and quickly disposed it's owner from it. The Changeling fell down, holding were his horn used to be. Ace couldn't think much as he was attacked by three more. He managed to move out if the way of a magic blast and then attacked ten. The changelings didn't lasted much against his sword.
If the battle continued that way, they would have defeated the enemy in less than three hours. He stabbed a changeling and moved to attack another one.
"General Ace, I've wanted to speak with you for a long time now," said a voice over the sound of fighting. Ace turned to the side were the voice was coming from and quickly took as two away.
It was a changeling. A very large and ugly changeling.
"You won't last long. You are doomed." Just as he finished those words, the ground began to tremble. Ace looked around, worry in his fade. "Good luck," the changeling said and then turned and walked away. Ace couldn't think much if it when a Pegasus arrived at his side.
"Sir, scouts report a very large force of changelings approaching..."
Ace didn't needed to be told. He could easily see them.
Wow... That seems like a large number of troops...
He didn't move or say anything. Soon he saw that the aerial support was not coming.
"Where are the pegasi?" Ace asked out loud. He didn't got any response. He looked back at the incoming enemy reinforcements. He needed to prepare...
"Square formation!" he shouted. Most ponies heard him. It wasn't going to be pretty, at leafs not considering what a square tactic could do...
*** *** ***
Louis returned to his spot and saw a flashing sword in the hill. It was Silver, but he couldn´t understand if it was the forward motion which indicated attack, or the backwards motion, which indicated retreat. Still, he didn't needed to wonder for long before he saw something that caused him to immediately curse. He should have been watching!
Ace was falling back, though luckily he hadn´t lost many ponies. It was obvious he had been suddenly overrun. Louis noticed that there were many more enemy troops now. Apparently reinforcements had arrived when he wasn't watching.He heard a metallic sound behind him as he saw somepony falling right towards where he was watching. He yelped and threw himself away just a a pegasus landed hard just where he had been laying down. He covered his head as small pieces of steaming hot metal rained down.
“Ah!” he shouted, clenching his teeth right away just as some of them fell on his arm, burning his shirt. He slowly lifted his arms off from his head just as he stopped feeling the metal falling. He looked at where the pony had fallen…
...and immediately regretted that.
He turned around, surprise, disgust and a rising anger on his face. He risked another look.
The pegasus was… or had been… a light green color. Now, he was just black, covered with burns all over. Also, he was a mess. His wings where… one was missing and the other one was bent in an unnatural angle, as well as his legs. Blood was oozing from many deep cut wounds and he had part of his armor melted against his coat.
He was going to turn when he saw that the pony was still breathing.
“Buck the cover…” Louis said, using an expression he had heard ponies use. “Medic! I need a medic!” He turned to where Silver was ordering a retreat. The changelings were almost on him.
Louis saw Silver slash his sword at a changeling and then run back and out of sight. Soon, the hill was completely covered in changelings.
As he watched, a group of field doctors had rushed from their covers and immediately went to assist the pegasus. Louis looked up and knew the battle was lost. The pegasus were racing back to the main camp and the changelings were falling down against Ace. Changeling numbers had suddenly increased from seven thousand to… at least twenty thousand! Louis opened his eyes wide in surprise. He turned to his troops.
“Fall back to the main camp! Don't break lines!” he ordered. Immediately the covers were thrown and the ponies began to march back. Louis turned to the battle… Now only Ace´s units remained, trying hard to fall back but were quickly surrounded.
“Iroh!” he shouted. The pegasus ran at him.
“Yes commander?” he asked.
“Get me a unit of pegasi, the fastest we have, and tell them to rescue Ace and his troops.” He turned to look at the battle again. It was no longer a battle, but rather a mayhem of equestrians trying to fend off enemies from all sides.
Ace had been intelligent and had ordered his ponies to make a square formation with pikes in the sides to stop changelings. Archers were firing all around from inside the defended square of pony bodies, fending off airborne changelings and unicorns threw magic blasts at attacking changelings.
“The unit is ready to go!” the captain said. Louis nodded.
“Send them to get those troops out of there. Make sure you don´t miss anypony.”
The captain looked surprised. “Sir? You want me to go?”
Louis nodded. “Yes, I trust you more than anypony here. I need you to command the rescue.” He walked closer to the captain. “Only remember that it´s a rescue, not an offensive. Get them out of there as soon as you can and try to evade fights at all cost.”
Captain Iroh nodded and whistled. He jumped into the air, followed by a hundred pegasi. Louis looked for a couple of seconds before turning back to his own troops. They were already moving. Luckily, the changelings hadn't noticed them, or didn't care. Even then Louis knew that it would be almost impossible to counter such an offensive. He turned and ran to his troops.
*** *** ***
“Maintain formations!” captain Iroh ordered. His orders were repeated by unit captains to each pegasi unit. He turned and saw his pegasus flying fast. Changelings didn´t noticed them until they were right on top of them. Still, Iroh knew he was not to engage the enemy. Below he was blasts of green magic fly up to the sky to trying to take down the pegasi. None hit.
He saw two large groups of changelings moving to meet them. He made some clicking sounds with his tongue. It was a language invented by the wonderbolts and shared to the equestrian air force to communicate. Immediately, two units moved to counter them. Iroh kept focused on the ponies below.
He began circling the area where Ace was and quickly sent three units to protect air perimeter and ordered the units to go and pick up the troops. Unit by unit, the pegasi picked more and more equestrian soldiers. Soon only Ace and three more were left. Changelings were too busy trying to take down the pegasi that they had forgotten them. Iroh thanked Celestia for his troops. So far, no casualties and he was pleased to see changelings rain down like water. A pegasus picked up general Ace and, as three more moved to pick the remaining ponies, a green lighting shot from nowhere and immediately took down the three pegasus. Iroh turned and saw the the ponies below were rapidly killed the same way.
“What the…” he began. Just then, another lightning shot out from the earth and hit five pegasi, each of them were carrying equestrian troops. He shouted no as the ponies fell down, some of them dead and others still alive and shouting only to meet the ground and never speak again.
“Alright, our business here is done! Move out!” he shouted. The pegasi moved into arrow formation and cut right through the changeling ari troops. Iroh saw other three lighting strike more pegasus, but soon they were leaving the main battlefield, and not much later the changelings stopped their pursuit.
Iroh sighed as he felt his heartbeat steadily begin to decrease. They were safe… for now…
*** *** ***
Louis was waiting beside his tent as the pegasus began to arrive. He looked up at the sky and smiled. Not long after that, captain Iroh landed in front of him.
“Sir, mission accomplished.”
Louis smiled, pleased. “Good.” His smiled weakened a little. “How many casualties?” Iroh looked down.
“We lost a total of twenty three, sir. Also, we lost some of them while carrying rescued ponies,” his ears were hanging low.
“Okay, thank you captain. Where is general Ace?” he asked. Louis really wanted to speak to him.
“I sent all the pegasi carrying rescued ponies to the infirmary. He´s there.”
“Alright, danke again. You can rest, as well as the rest of the pegasus. Good job.” Iroh saluted and walked away. Louis smiled and walked to the infirmary tents.
The infirmary tents were on the other side of camp, so he took some time to get there. As soon as he arrived, his smile dropped.
He could see hundreds of ponies around. Some had light wounds, but there were some that deeply trouble the german soldier. Having participated in the war back on earth had made him far more resistant to that type of scenes, but seeing ponies… that peaceful race, bloodied and hurt… It angered him and moved him deeply. Many seemed to try to not show how much their cuts and wounds hurt, but others weren't lucky enough to manage that. He saw a pony being carried away with an amputated leg, and not far another one been held by some nurses to try to administer a sedative. He walked to them.
He stopped once he was beside them. One of the nurses saw him and stood up.
“Vat is wrong with him?” he said, some of his accent slipping away. The nurse looked at his patient and her ears dropped. She sighed.
“He…” some tears began to come out from her eyes. “He´s not gonna make it, sir. We did our best, but his wound is just to contaminated and the magical residues from the changeling horn that impaled him are too strong…” She cleaned tears off her face. “We are trying to stop the pain for then he… he…” She didn´t finished, but rather turned and returned to help her fellow nurses. Soon, they had applied the sedative. Louis saw the pony look calmer soon. Then, after looking around at the ponies around him and their faces, realization hits him.
“What… why are you not doing anything? Why are you only wa…” he lifted his head slowly and saw the horn wound on his chest. “Oh sweet Celestia. I… I´m d… dying, no?” A quick glance at the nurses was enough. “Oh… Celestia merciful… Please… no…” He began to have tears on his eyes. He then looked at Louis. “Commander! Help me! Help me please!” he shouted. Many ponies around turned to look. Louis began to feel uncomfortable, and after seeing that pony´s face he began to feel water in his eyes. “Commander, do something, I know you can!” he shouted, looking at the now darkening sky. “Please! I don´t wanna die!” Louis felt the stares. They were watching him. He kneeled beside the pony and stared into his big eyes. The pony looked at him and uttered another word.
“Please…”
Louis felt more tears invading his eyes. He tried to smile comfortably at the pony.
“What´s your name?” he asked.
“Wind Braker,” the pony answered. Louis was confused. How did an earth pony… He immediately pushed the thought aside as he realized what had happened.
“Well Wind Braker, I am sure you fought valiantly, no?” The pegasus slowly nodded. “I… I wish I could do something…” Those words made the pony open his eyes wide, but before he could begin lamenting, Louis continued. “...but I will do something different than what you expect.” He moved his hand to his pockets and took out a small metal medal. He placed it in the pony´s belly. “I was awarded this after a valiant act. I was shot, and I still fought until the end of the fight. I almost lost my leg, but they gave me this medal. Now I give it to you, a brave soldier.” The pegasus was at a loss of words. “Don´t speak…” Louis instructed. “But remember what you are fighting for. Do you think it was worth it?” The pony was now staring into empty space.
In a soft and barely audible voice he said “Yes…” Slowly, the pony´s head fell back and a hoof he had used to keep the medal to his stomach fell slowly as well. The medal remained where it was. Louis felt tears again, and this time he allowed some of them to come out. He didn't wanted to show them, but resisting them was too much. He moved his hands and closed the pony´s eyes, then stood up slowly. He turned and, without saying another word, walked away. As he began to walk, he heard the faint sound of a pony stomping. It was weak, but he heard it. He was going to ignore it when he heard another join in. He stopped and turned and saw a pony with a bandaged wing stomping, looking at him. Another one was the nurse he had spoken with. Soon many began to join. Louis was unsure as to what they were doing, until the one that had done it first stopped and walked to him.
“Thank you, sir.”
Louis was not sure of what to say. “I…”
The pony smiled and turned around, leaving. Soon the ponies around began to walk to Louis. He found himself surrounded by ponies. They all saluted him. He didn´t knew what to do, so he saluted back.
And for some reason, he felt happy…